About a month after I quit my job, I had still not found my “fantastic work at home opportunity” I was cleaning out an old drawer when I found an old address book and started to flip through it. When I got to the “Rs” I saw the name of an old friend of mine who because I had moved house a few times, had lost touch with over the years. She and I had been in a business together and I really liked and respected her.. So I though to myself, “let me give her a call” I did. After a couple of rings, a voice said “Hello?.. Roma? I said..It’s Julie How are you? She was very surprised to hear from me. But was what even more amazing that she was in her empty home and had come back to disconnect and collect the phones. She had moved out of town a few days earlier. If I had called 15 minutes later, The phone would have been disconnected and I might never have got back in touch with her. we exchanged new phone numbers and promised to keep in touch.

I called her a few days later and we caught up on the last 7 or 8 years or so. Then she asked me a strange question..She asked me if I was making all the money I wanted. I laughed out loud. I knew from my time in “one of those things” that this was THE question. Roma…What are you into now? I asked still laughing. But she was not laughing. She was deadly serious. “Travel” she said. suddenly I wasn’t laughing any more either. “Travel?” I repeated. “Online Travel” she said. Well if you have ever heard the English term gobsmacked, That was me. I was gobsmacked.

Ok . So I had made the choice to stop working for someone else and work for myself. I knew with every fiber of my being that this was the right thing to do no matter how uncertain the future. I had discovered that I loved to travel but now what? I knew the internet was a good place to start so I began to research some online travel websites.

There were a gazillion of them! It seemed everyone and his uncle had ventured into online travel. Even Donald Trump (Although I viewed this as a good thing) How was I going to compete with all these companies? They were just too big and powerful. I mean Barry Dillard paid $5.1BILLION to buy Expedia for heavens sake!
I was stumped! I began to think I had not thought this through. I started to have second thoughts. I even started “glancing” in the “classifieds”

So I have been working from home for about 7 years and it was the best thing I ever did. I had spent many years working for other people, some great..some not. Either way…great or not, THEY got to choose my worth..THEY got to choose my pay and if, and when I got a raise….THEY got to chose my vacation time. THEY got to choose who I worked with. Does this seem right to you? After all I am the one doing the job. Not them…Shouldn’t I get to choose all that? After a while things began to really bother me. People screaming at me because I made a mistake. I MADE A MISTAKE! I didn’t burn down your house or steal the company profits. I made a mistake. Do I really deserve to be humiliated in front of the people I work with? To be treated like a child or told how stupid I am? The answer was obvious. NO I DON’T!

So finally I decided to take that leap of faith and go it alone. It was really scary believe me. Once you get used to that weekly paycheck (no matter the amount) it is really scary when it is no longer there. So what was I going to do? I had been involved in a few part time companies over the years. I had sold a few products and made a bit of extra income. You know..one of those “things” The “P” word where you annoy all your friends and family until no one will return your calls. So I wasn’t sure that this was the way to go. Many companies promise the earth and the moon but often don’t deliver. Plus I really had no desire to be bulk buying and then trying to resell any more. I had to find what thrilled me. THAT was the secret. you have to do something that excites you or what’s the point? It has to be more than just a paycheck.

So I sat down and though about what I had done in my life that thrilled me the most and other than becoming a wife and a mom, the answer was so obvious. I HAD TRAVELED I had spent time in many parts of the UK, including Yorkshire, Lancashire, Lincolnshire, and London. I had lived in Spain, Switzerland, Greece, and the USA. I had vacationed in many many other places around the world. And I had loved every minute of it. THIS is what I needed to do. THIS was my passion. but how?

I looked into becoming a travel agent and perhaps opening up a local store. Apart from the huge cost involved and the time it would take. It didn’t take a genius to know that many of the brick and mortar Travel Agents were going out of business. So I started to research. You know, do my due diligence . What I found out blew me away. …… 42 cents out of every dollar spent online was spent in travel Let me repeat that…42 cents out of every dollar spent online was spent on travel. That was HUGE! I knew then where I needed to go. I really needed to be in the online travel business. But how?……………………Visit my blog or click here to read part 2

Do you work from home, if so, what was it that helped make the decision to do that? Are you glad you did and would you ever go back to working for someone else?